


When Rip Met Gideon

by ams75



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Pre-Series, RipFic, Timeship Week, Timeship Week 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2019-01-07 22:35:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12241938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ams75/pseuds/ams75
Summary: For Timeship Week, Day 1 - Pre-series. Just how did Rip and Gideon meet?Shameless fluff.





	When Rip Met Gideon

"Michael!"  
  
He looked up from his homework, startled. "Yes, Mother?"  
  
"Hurry up or you'll be late! The others are all ready!"  
  
"Coming, Mother!" He sprang to his feet, grabbed his coat and draped it over his arm. He slammed his physics book shut, shoved it and his workbook into his bag, and ran down the stairs.  
  
He slammed to a stop when he saw Mother was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs, handkerchief in hand. "Oh, Michael," she said as she caught him and rubbed away the smidge of dirt he always seemed to miss on his cheek. He squirmed but was unable to escape her ministrations. "There! Now you look like a proper Time Master."  
  
"That won't be for several more years," he reminded her.  
  
"Nonsense. You already are. I know you'll do me proud."  
  
"Yes, Mother."  
  
"Now be good, listen to your instructors and don't get into trouble." He gave her his best angelic look and she laughed. "You're fooling no-one, Michael, with that."  He sighed.  "Right, now, off you go, special day today."  She kissed the top of his head.  
  
Michael ran outside, then slowed to a halt as he saw all the small buses, hovercars, carriages and even a few horses. Children were everywhere, far more than lived here.  
  
"Michael!" Time Master Druce hollered his name. He raced over, not daring to loiter even a second. He might be grounded and miss out on this special day. This was the day when he and his fellow students were to see their first time ship and meet an A.I.  
  
"I didn't think I'd get to see you today!"  
  
"Not only am I showing your group around the ship, I'm here to take you to meet her."  He handed the youngster, no more than thirteen years old, a helmet. "Put it on, you're about to experience more horse power than those," he nodded at the horses, "can give you."  
  
Michael's eyes widened. "A Harley!" It looked just like the one in the picture he had carefully hung on his bedroom wall.  He was mad about motorcycles and had been since the first time he had ever seen one.  
  
"Yes, indeed." He swung his leg easily over the hog and looked back. "Well, what are you waiting for? Come on!"  
  
Michael ran the few steps so that he was beside the beautiful machine, then copied his mentor's movement. He held his feet up and with a roar, they were off. Michael held tightly around Druce's waist and laughed joyfully at the feeling of power beneath him.  All too soon, they reached the docking building where the ships nestled in their berths.  
  
There were even more kids here than he'd originally thought and he found himself in a group where he didn't recognize a single student. Some others might have been in the same situation, they walked by themselves and looked around as he did. A few pairs of boys, girls, and both seemed at ease and were laughing and commenting on everything they saw. Michael ignored them as they passed the first ship. It was majestic, sleek and looked like it could outrun and outfight any ship the Time Pirates had.  
  
Each ship they passed outshone the last until... his heart sank. This one looked old.    
  
“Welcome aboard,” Time Master Druce said, as he led the way up the ramp. He and the others filed in one by one until the ramp was retracted and the door closed. "This might not be what you were expecting but it is one of a kind," he said.   
  
The others started to whisper and point out how run down it looked, but it began to look beautiful to Michael. It had survived many trips in the temporal zone and that was to be admired.  
  
He gently ran his hand along the metal wall as they walked through until they came to the bridge.  
  
"Activate," Time Master Druce said, and Michael may have gasped a little.  A hologram of a big, blue head floated above the centre table and it spoke.   
  
"Good morning," it, no, _she_ said.  
  
"Get a load of that antique!" one of the older students scoffed.    
  
"Check out how old these controls are," a girl said, and the students drifted away, all except Michael. He stood there, transfixed. She was beautiful, he decided.  
  
"May I help you?" If she didn't sound completely polite, well, he couldn't blame her.  
  
"Sorry, Miss, they must've been raised in a barn." He'd never been to one or seen one, except in a book Mother had read to him, long ago. "It's a pleasure and an honour to meet you."  
  
She seemed to study him. "What is your name, young master?"  
  
"I ain't no master, not yet, any road. I'm called Michael."  
  
"I am Gideon."  
  
"Is it true what they say?"  
  
"I don't know; what is it they say?"  
  
"You're the very first time ship artificial intelligence?" he asked.  
  
"Wouldn't that make me very old?" He wasn't sure but he thought she might be teasing him.  
  
"That would make you the best," he said.  
  
Before she could answer, Time Master Druce interrupted them. "Come along, you haven't even looked at the pilot's chair."  
  
"It was a pleasure to meet you, Gideon," he said sincerely.  
  
She watched as he was led away. "Likewise, young Michael."  
  
**********  
  
"What, this old thing is the flagship of the time ship fleet?" Newly minted Captain Rip Hunter couldn't help but scoff.  
  
"No, of course it isn't, there's been some sort of mistake," Time Master Druce said, irritated. "Wait here and I'll get this sorted." Furious that his goal had somehow been thwarted, he stalked away, determined to fix it.  
  
He'd intended to be good, but Rip grew bored quickly. He wandered around the ship until her could find her name. _Waverider_ , it read on the side. He continued to walk until he felt a sense of having seen her before as he found the door. He opened it and there was a ramp as he had thought there might be. Why had he thought that? He lowered it then walked up and into the ship.  
  
The feeling of having been here before grew stronger as he went searching for the bridge.  
  
When he reached it, he asked, "Hello?"  
  
A moment later, she appeared. Big, blue, bald, beautiful.  "Good afternoon, young master Michael. I'm Gideon, at your service."  
  
"Pleased to meet you, but the name is Rip. Captain Rip Hunter, actually." She laughed and he frowned. "We've met before, haven't we?"  
  
"Indeed we did," she said.  
  
He'd trained on both simulations and near the end of his time at the academy, on ships but that wasn't how he knew her. The memory was right there, tickling his... "Gideon, isn't it?"  
  
"A pleasure to see you again."  
  
He smiled as he remembered his first sight of her. "Likewise, Gideon, likewise."  
  
By the time Druce had returned, Rip had enjoyed a short, guided tour of the ship and had settled behind the desk in the room just off the bridge.  
  
"It's going to take more time to get this sorted out," Druce said after he'd found Rip.  
  
Rip pulled out a bottle of Scotch the A.I. had directed him to. No, not just an A.I., _Gideon_ , he reminded himself as he poured two fingers into a glass.    
  
"I rather like this one," Rip said. He made a toast. "To the _Waverider_ , and Gideon!"  
  
**********  
  
Gideon flickered into being and watched her young Time Master snooze, head turned one way, cheek resting on his folded arms.  
  
It had been a long time since she had met Michael and he had responded so well to her. She had kept an eye on him as he moved his way through the academy and he seemed even more suitable. He wasn't just a mindless drone, servant of the Time Council. He had challenged them once or twice. When she came across the request that he be assigned to the newest, fastest ship, she had made the appropriate changes on the necessary documents.  
  
As he snored lightly, she thought wryly this was going to be a beautiful partnership.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, of course Druce was manipulating Michael and trying to dig his claws as deeply into him as possible, he personally hates motorcycles and would rather have taken a luxury car to the ship port.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed. Kudos are nice, comments are love.


End file.
